Gignac awarded contract to design another CCISD elementary school

CORPUS CHRISTI - A new elementary school to be built on the Southside will be designed by the local architecture firm that has designed the past four CCISD elementary schools.

Corpus Christi Independent School District trustees voted 5-1 Monday to hire Gignac & Associates, which designed Shaw and Webb elementaries. The firm also did the design for two elementaries that will open in the fall.

Trustee Lucy Rubio said she likes the design Gignac has provided for the other schools and said she believes using the same firm and the basic design is a solid money-saving option.

Architects are selected based on qualifications and then a fee is negotiated based on a percentage of the total construction cost, Superintendent Scott Elliff said. No construction firm has been selected so the total amount that will be paid to Gignac & Associates hasn’t been determined.

But the agreement is for 3.5 percent of the overall cost of construction, Elliff said. Typically the fee is 6 percent, he said, but because the district is reusing basic plans that the firm did for previous schools the fee is lower.

“A lot of times you hear in the public that we’re playing favorites,” Rubio said, but the savings through this process shows the district is not.

Diaz disagreed, saying that by giving four consecutive schools to one company, the district is discouraging competition.

“It’s nothing against this company, I have nothing but respect for them. They hire locally,” Diaz said. “Still I am going to continue to say I want us to be an equal opportunity employer and open it up for other companies to do business with us.”

In addition to Webb and Shaw, Gignac designed the new Zavala, which opens in August, and Hicks, which also will open in August.

Hicks, Zavala, and two schools named Monday were approved by voters in November 2008 as part of a $192 million school bond issue.

CCISD plans to consolidate Zavala and Lamar elementary schools in the new Zavala school, on the existing Zavala property. Central Park and Lexington elementary schools are being consolidated into the Hicks campus, where Central Park was. Casa Linda and Carroll Lane elementaries become the new school named after State Board of Education member Mary Helen Berlanga, which will be on the site of Carroll Lane Elementary. The new Southside elementary will be the one named for Marine Cpl. Zachary Kolda. An exact location for that campus has yet to be selected.